Coast Guard investigating body found in Deale

Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating whether the body of a man that washed up against a homeowner's pier in southern Anne Arundel County on Thursday is that of a crew member who went missing from a commercial container ship late last year.

Officials with the state's Department of Natural Resources Police alerted the Coast Guard of the body, which was found in Deale, about 7:40 p.m. Thursday, said Lt. Peter Francisco, a Coast Guard marine investigator.

"Whenever there is a body recovered, that's cross-referenced against all missing people that the Coast Guard has searches for," Francisco said.

Based on the geographic area in which the body was found, investigators are looking into possible connections to a missing person case in which a crew member on the commercial ship Partagas went missing on Dec. 25, 2012, Francisco said.

Francisco said the Partagas sails under a Malta flag. There is an "open marine casualty investigation" relating to the missing crew member, he said.

The body found Thursday was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, and investigators are awaiting identification and cause and manner of death.